MOSCOW (MRC) -- India's Gail Limited plans to convert its new linear low polyethylene line to produce metallocene LLDPE by the second half of 2017 after production of regular butene grade LLDPE stabilizes, a company source said Wednesday, reported Apic-online.
The new 400,000 mt/year high density/LLDPE plant at Gail's Pata complex in Uttar Pradesh was started up in March this year and operating rates ramped up to 70% of capacity by the end of August, S&P Global Platts reported earlier.
The new plant was built using univation technology, which allow conversion to mLLDPE production.
Market sources in India said that supply of commodity grade polyethylene, which includes the regular LLDPE grade, was becoming too high with close to 2 million mt/year of new PE capacity being started up this year and next.
India's net deficit of PE in 2016 was around 1 million-1.5 million mt, according to sources.
GAIL has a 210,000 mt/year PE complex, which consists of an HDPE/LLDPE swing plant and a dedicated HDPE plant.
It is also the marketer of polymers produced by Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Limited's new complex in Assam, which consists of a 220,000 mt/year HDPE/LLDPE swing plant and 60,000 mt/year polypropylene plant.
As MRC informed previously, GAIL India plans to import ethane from countries including the US, for its upcoming USD5 billion joint-venture Andhra Pradesh petrochemical plant. GAIL is seeking 1.3 million mt/year of ethane for 15 years for its JV ethane cracker with India's Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL), located on the east coast of India beginning 2022.
MRC